Manmohan Singh destroyed PM post: Arun Shourie

Former National Democratic Alliance (NDA) minister Arun Shourie has alleged that Prime Minister Manmohgn Singh has destroyed the PM post during his tenure.

Speaking to CNN-IBN Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose in a special series 'Ideas 2014', Shourie said: "I am furious with this man. Everybody hoped so much from him. He has given good men a bad name."

"People will say get a crook let him do something. This man's core competence is to deflect blame on others, on Raja, some secretary of coal, on the world economic situation. He has destroyed the basic pillar of governance in India and that is the Prime Minister," he said.Shourie backed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and said he should not apologize for the 2002 riots.

"Immediately people will say he is doing it for elections. The record is yes there was a breakdown and it has never happened again in Gujarat and I would hope that he would stand on that and not go in for this apology and so on that's nonsense," he said.

Launching a scathing attack on his rival, Singh on Jan 3 said Modi as Prime Minister of India from the BJP would be disastrous for the country.

"It would be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as Prime Minister," said the PM in his much touted press conference.

He said Modi is "someone who has presided over a mass massacre".

Singh said he never believed he was a weak Prime Minister and historians will judge his tenure and then again attacked Modi saying that if strength means supervising the massacres on the streets of Ahmedabad then he does not need that strength.

The PM also ended his press conference saying what Modi is saying would not materialize.